Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

This is a book on everything to do with the CADTM- its origins, its history, its battles and the movement in which it is inscribed. This little book presents the CADTM- its networks, analyses and the proposals it has made, and to present them within the context that saw its creation and which continues to orient, motivate and nourish its activities: the context of neo-liberal globalisation and the growing resistance by millions of women
and men across the planet who oppose it.

The ever changing face of this resistance continues to surprise and to convince an ever larger number of people in the world. In only ten years, the complex opposition to neo-liberal logic, once falsely described as “anti-globalist” has become a powerful popular international movement newly baptised “alter-globalist” or, more commonly “altermondialist”. A strong movement with multiple identities, it is enriched by countless practises, experiences and alternatives constructed on a daily basis and which foster debates during world, local or regional social forums, counter summits, meetings and the numerous manifestations that structure its agenda.

The CADTM has participated actively in the edition and publication of most of the texts proposed here in chronological order, from the fundamental text of CADTM presented by the call of the Bastille adopted in Paris in July 1989 to the call from social movements adopted in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2005. Most of these texts are introduced by a commentary, which places it in the context of the social movement of the time and emphasises the progress made so that, while reading, the dynamic, the coherence and the stakes of the CADTM’s battle emerge.